This is the solution, and the place to start is your local comic shop if you have one. Almost all of them run gaming clubs in the back.

This exactly.

I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if it did, and Japan would be a likely culprit.

Tech has the right of what I was getting at though. I’ve been a member of several organizations and every one has made an attempt to turn me out to events. Most recently I’ve been working with a local Democratic Socialists of America chapter which got me out for canvassing and socials, which lead to protests and neighborhood cleanups, and now includes mutual aid events and tabletop gaming. All of this happened after I was laid off and moved half way across the country. Not all organizations are the same, but a good one can practically create a whole social life from thin air.

My brother in Christ, that is just a club! You pay dues to belong and everyone elects the few most organized and functional people to plan events that everyone can enjoy. You can even kick it up a notch and make it a civil organization so that you’re accomplishing good works while hanging out with likeminded people. Society used to be full of such organizations, and it’s time we brought them back.

Xitter* (pronounced shitter)

Absolutely! But it’s not just about the internal pressure. If everyone trump threatens retaliates even when he backs off, and then demands he offer assurances before they do, he looks weak. The one thing he doesn’t want, and can’t afford, is to look weak in front of his base. It won’t work immediately, but if he keeps looking weak on the public stage he’ll either stop making such threats in order to avoid it or lose enough support to matter.

Not just McDonald’s, it’s been used by numerous organizations to downplay lawsuits they feel will hurt them with consumers. Tort reform is also trotted out by politicians who want to look as though they’re protecting people from “government overreach” because they know people don’t know what torts are and they can scare them into believing they’re going to be sued if they don’t get outside to shovel their walk early enough after a snow.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilly_Willy?wprov=sfti1

Oddly, this exact scenario is a major reason why they fail to issue some warrants. The biggest hurdle for any supranational organization is maintenance of its legitimacy, which takes a huge blow when members refuse to abide by its decisions. This leaves such organizations with very few options. The easiest and most common is to weigh the cost, in lost legitimacy, of not acting against the probability of member defection and only take an action if defection is unlikely or inaction would cost even more legitimacy. In that light issuing the arrest warrant in the first place arguably indicates that the ICC believes either that the legitimacy lost by not acting is greater than that lost to defection, or that labeling Netanyahu and his ilk war criminals is more important than any legitimacy lost in defection.

But why should anyone have to grind at a shit job? If your business can only survive by grinding people down, maybe society would be better off without it. If the only way we can get same day delivery is over the burnt-out, permanently injured ex-employees of a multi-national, is it really worth it? Maybe that start-up never should have made it. Maybe strong labor laws should have forced them to scale back their ambitions or close their doors.

Look up the opium wars. Shit’ll blow your mind.

But seriously, I don’t know much about that particular drug. What I do know is that the Assad regime has been largely propped up, for some time, by the aid of Russia and Iran. With the war in Ukraine eating up much of Russia’s stockpiles of funds and munitions, and the war in Gaza and Lebanon drawing Iran’s attention it was an ideal time for the rebels, with the backing of Turkey to strike. To the extent that illicit Captagon sales raised significant funds and arms for the regime fluctuations in demand and regional crackdowns may have exacerbated their weakened position, but the larger effect has to be attributed to the loss of support from international allies.

If they don’t already think we’re nuts for wearing clothes.

The most important ethical obligation you have right now is assuring your family member that you are going to be alright after their passing. It’s clear that your family member is worried by your situation and is hoping that the inheritance they leave behind will materially better it. You don’t necessarily have to lie to them and promise to do exactly what they request, but you can at least agree to give it serious consideration and look into the specifics. More importantly you can assure them that you will work hard to be responsible with your inheritance, assure them that it will make a substantive positive difference in your life, and tell them how much it means to you that they care about you so much. Make sure that you’re spending your remaining time together focused on the moment and not either of your hypothetical futures.

After (my condolences in advance) your loved one’s passing, your most pressing ethical obligation will be honoring their wishes. I know it feels like that means becoming a landlord, but it sounds pretty clear to me that their true wish is that you achieve financial security. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t manage a rental property (more on that in a moment), but it could mean anything that provides for your future so long as you earnestly try to use the money responsibly towards that end. I doubt your loved one would be as upset at you learning a new trade or opening a small business that allowed you to provide for yourself as they would be if you became a landlord and lived the rest of your days in financially secure misery. Now is the time to take a look at the price of the low end of rental properties you could run while living in and ask yourself what you could responsibly do with that money to ensure your future stability. That is what your loved one truly wants.

As for being a landlord, it can absolutely be done ethically. I don’t ever aspire to own regardless of home prices and having the landlord live on site is my first suggestion every time I talk about improving rental standards. Seeing issues with their own eyes would hopefully lead landlords to address them when they are cheaper to fix and before they become major problems for tenants. The problem with many landlords is that they’re looking for a passive income instead of a job or side gig. Take seriously the responsibility of providing quality housing at a reasonable price that compensates you for your work and you will genuinely be helping people get away from the worst examples of landlords. Being a landlord can and must be done ethically, and you owe it to your family member to look into how it could be done even if it isn’t a route you choose to take.

On a personal note I’m very sorry to hear of your loved one’s poor health. I hope that they do not suffer greatly. Take what time you can now to take solace in each others’ company and assure them that, while you will grieve mightily their passing, you will be alright after they are gone. Right now their comfort and convalescence is the most importance obligation, later it will be their wish for your health and happiness. Good luck my friend, you will be in my thoughts.

I swear, every James Woods post I’ve ever read is the text equivalent of watching a seasoned philosopher very carefully, and methodically shit their pants.

Election results always seem to mean exactly what the person writing about them has been telling everyone for years. Funny that.

Least egotistical pilot.

Several of the trade groups that sued New York “vociferously lobbied the FCC to classify broadband Internet as a Title I service in order to prevent the FCC from having the authority to regulate them,” today’s 2nd Circuit ruling said. “At that time, Supreme Court precedent was already clear that when a federal agency lacks the power to regulate, it also lacks the power to preempt. The Plaintiffs now ask us to save them from the foreseeable legal consequences of their own strategic decisions. We cannot.”

This has to be one of the better, legal “go fuck yourselves” I’ve ever seen.

Well, this is awkward…